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I am thinking about trying some screened bottom boards but am concerned about leaving them on year round. I live in north central ohio and temps get below zero on occassion and we have been below freeaing most of the winter. I know I could build a bottom board with a solid removable panel but I am too lazy for that if I dont have to. Anybody have any info on how bees surive winter with an open bottom to the hive?

I don't have any experience with them wintering in SBB. I have wintered a lot of hives, though, and the concept is pretty contrary for me. I'd take a piece of baling twine and staple it to the edges of the under side of the bottom board to make a zig zag and slide in a piece of cardboard if it was me.

I built the screened bottom boards from this board that can be closed during the cold or when doing a mite drop test and they work for me. I am North of you and usually much colder than you but they are wonderful helping control the varora mites
Clint

From all of the comments that I have read about cold and Bees, the cold will not kill the bees. If you don't have sufficent ventilation and it is cold where the moisture will collect on the cover and drip on the bees this will kill the bees. I know of a feral swarm that is exposed under the eave of a vacunt house that has been there for a while and they are still alive (in S.E. Ks, temp down to 0 Deg. at times). I have not been brave enough to leave my slide board out this year but I may next year. Seems that the cold doesn't affect the bees like it does us humans. As for making the slide it really isn't that much trouble. I use screws to install the 3/4"X3/4" strips to retain the slider board. You can use most anything available for the slider board. If you have more questions just post them here and someone will answer them. Dale

Personally I will not try the open bottom boards here. It's not just the temperature that's an issue. I've seen many a ground blizzard when it was 10 below and the wind was 60 mph. I don't think it should be open. Maybe the wind doesn't blow so much other places, but any winter storm here will hit 40 mph.

This is my first year with a sbb on during the winter. It has been pretty cold here in northeastern PA this winter, and so far so good. I have to agree, that an updraft could become a problem, but I have my hives on stands, that more or less prevent an updraft, but still allow ventilation during the season. Time will tell. We are getting another arctic blast this week, and temps down to the single digits again!

Re: screened bottom boards

Originally Posted by Michael Bush

I don't have any experience with them wintering in SBB. I have wintered a lot of hives, though, and the concept is pretty contrary for me. I'd take a piece of baling twine and staple it to the edges of the under side of the bottom board to make a zig zag and slide in a piece of cardboard if it was me.

Michael, Don here in the frigid northwest Nebraska. Do you use screened bottom boards?

Re: screened bottom boards

Just slide a piece of sign board in the entrance of the hive for winter.
Been reading on here for years some people in cold country close them some leave them open all winter. I think the wind could be a problem.

Re: screened bottom boards

With screen sizes with holes larger than #7, bees can get through, so you need to use #7 or #8 to block bees. But #7 is much harder to find than #8 hardware cloth. You may have better luck asking for "#8 hardware cloth" instead of "screen".

A useful reference on hardware cloth sizes:

Originally Posted by Michael Bush

#8 - no bee can pass. pollen gets stuck.
#7 - as long as there are no bent wires, no bee can pass. Pollen falls through.#6 - worker bees can squeeze through (and will) but they have to wiggle and squirm a lot. Drones and queens cannot.#5 - worker bees can squeeze through easily but lose some of their pollen. Queens and drones cannot.#4 - all bees can pass (workers, drones and queens). The workers sometimes lose some of their pollen when they catch their basket on the wire. (mice cannot and this makes a nice mouse guard)

Re: screened bottom boards

> Are there any similar guidelines for allowing pests like SHB to fall through?

Your only options for suitable hardware cloth to allow SHB to pass are #7 or #8 as other sizes (smaller numbers) allow bees through as well. #7 hardware cloth is quite difficult to find, so for most beeks #8 is the only practical choice.

Betterbee does show #7 hardware cloth on their website, but it has been "out of stock" for a long time. I don't know of any other source for reasonable quantities.

Re: screened bottom boards

Originally Posted by izybo

I am thinking about trying some screened bottom boards but am concerned about leaving them on year round. I live in north central ohio and temps get below zero on occassion and we have been below freeaing most of the winter. I know I could build a bottom board with a solid removable panel but I am too lazy for that if I dont have to. Anybody have any info on how bees surive winter with an open bottom to the hive?

I was also too lazy to equip my SBB's with slot and removeable panel. For winter we slipped pieces of wood under the hive to reduce the wind. In retrospect, I wish I had not been so lazy, as a removeable feature is quite useful, not only for winterizing, but for mite counts.